LIFE FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED

There is a reason I use the ocean theme on my home page.  It played a part in a day I will never forget.

I was born with nerve deafness.  Despite being told I was deaf when I was 4, I never wore hearing aids.  I always managed to get by.  Without realizing it, by watching people’s lips and facial expressions when they talked, I had become a superb lip reader.    Coping was difficult but became much more so as a teenager in high school.  There the larger class rooms presented problems and the pressures of social life became much more intense.  In fact, I avoided that scene as much as possible.

Seeing my struggles, when I was 15 my Mom and Dad decided it was time to go see our friend Dr. Howard House at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.  Knowing there had been major advances in hearing aid technology since the days of my first hearing aids, which had cords running from my ear molds to a battery in a shirt-pocket, now was the time.

We spent the day getting fitted for 2 new in-the-ear hearing aids.  Hearing tests were taken to determine the extent of my loss and in what ranges.  Ear molds were fitted and as we were leaving Dr. House’s final words were “It will take you about 1,000 hours to get used to them.”

The next day we went to the beach.  It was a beautiful, warm, summer day.  As I walked across the sand toward the water, wearing my new hearing aids, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Living near the beach I had been here many, many times but this was different.  For the first time in my life I heard noises coming from the gray and white seagulls circling overhead.  For the first time I heard the sounds of waves crashing on the sand.  I had never heard these glorious sounds before.  It was as though a beautiful painting had come to life.

That day on the beach is as clear in my memory as if it were yesterday.  I was struck by the realization of what our senses add to our lives.  I visit the ocean often and am ALWAYS remindful and thankful for the sounds of the beach.

At the time I was born there were no hearing tests required for newborns.  As a result it was often as children moved from infancy to childhood years when parents noticed signs that there may be a hearing problem.  I have a very good memory but it would be a stretch to say I remember everything about that time in my life.  But there are certain happenings stored on my mental hard drive that I remember vividly.  Those happenings combined with conversations with my Mother and Father over the years allows me to tell my story here.

In my case I was about 4 years old when my parents became concerned about my hearing.  You might ask why it took so long and my only explanation would be that I had become an excellent lip reader.  I had not even realized I had but survival will do that to you.  I subconsciously watched people’s lips when they talked, put that together with what little sound I heard and facial expressions and I fooled everybody.  I couldn’t fool my parents though when they were behind me and I didn’t respond.  It wasn’t until my first hearing test at the age of 4 that it was discovered I had a 90 decibel loss in both ears.

That test was given by Dr. Howard House in a small office in Los Angeles.  It was right down the street from where he later founded the House Clinic and the House Research Institute in Los Angeles, in a state-of-the-art 7 story building across the street from St. Vincent’s Hospital.  Little did we know then that my ear doctor would become world renown and his Institute a beacon of research and training for the hard of hearing.

After testing I was fitted for new hearing aids.  At that time they were the latest and the best, meaning there were cords going from each ear mold to a battery held in my shirt pocket.  I was so excited about all the new sounds I was hearing that I didn’t think of the downside.  You wouldn’t think there would be a downside but to a 4 year old boy, there was.  It didn’t take long to find out what.

Actually there were 2 things I considered deal breakers.  First, was the “glasses” syndrome.  That is the feeling any young boy or girl gets when told they must wear glasses.  The rejection is instantaneous.  Most kids would rather be led around by the hand than wear glasses.  Well multiply that by 10 and you begin to realize what a young boy or girl goes through when told they must wear a battery in their shirt pocket with cords up to their ears.  Not on your life.

Second, because of the aforesaid battery, cords, etc., my style would be severely cramped.  I loved any sport using a ball and thus did not want my arm to get entangled while trying to throw out a runner at the plate or some such thing.  Also, my mother later told me, I loved to climb.  I climbed the kitchen cupboards, the trees in the back yard, the neighbor’s fences and basically anything above ground level.  So the thought of me hanging from a tree branch by my hearing aid cords was a risk I couldn’t take.

This skewed logic led me to setting aside my hearing aids.  I did not wear them again until I returned to Dr. House when I was 15 years old.  At that time new hearing aids fit entirely in the ear.  I was born again and a whole new world opened up.  But I had paid a price.